Digitalization is changing virtually every industry, and insurance is no exception. From emerging disrupters, InsureTech or otherwise, turning the marketplace upside down, to early adopters who are trying to gain a head start, insurance organizations, especially in the property and casualty market, need to provide a digital experience across every channel that surpasses customer expectations. Key to enabling a successful digital transformation strategy is making sure that your customer interactions are optimized to meet your customers’ expectations. A winning strategy that has been used by insurers at the forefront of digital adoption is leveraging emerging digital technologies that enable business user empowerment.

Technology First

To reap the benefits that digital transformation brings to insurance organizations, they will need to invest in technologies that are scalable, cost-effective and support dynamic business growth. With Brand loyalty at an all-time low, and customer expectations at an all-time high, thanks to the high standards which have been developed by companies such as Apple, Amazon, and Google, customers are more likely than ever to switch insurers after a lackluster customer experience. For insurers who do not make the transformation from legacy to digital, creating a great customer experience will be increasingly difficult as their competition reaps the cross-collaborative advantages that digital provides.

Insurers increasingly see their in place legacy customer communications management systems, although still functional, require large maintenance costs and deliver increasingly diminishing returns on investment. Although this outmoded technology is still crucial for everyday business to continue, it is important for insurers to recognize that by not adopting a scalable digital strategy, they are neglecting the connectivity, automation, and speed to market that digital provides and their prospects and customers are demanding.

Business User Empowerment is the Emerging Trend

In the legacy world, updating and maintaining changes for your customer facing communications involves a heavy reliance on IT. Even small changes require multiple, repetitive levels of manual effort, oftentimes involving the use of processes such as copy and paste, e-mail and maintaining multiple versions of the same content within Microsoft Excel or Word files. However, when looking to invest in updating communications processes, new tools are emerging that allow business users to play a more direct and important role in the communication workflow.

These new technologies are aimed at business user empowerment, as well as easing the burden on IT. By leveraging the advantages of the cloud, whether public or private, and new licensing methods like SaaS, these new technologies are dissolving operational siloes throughout the organization.

When looking to update their customer communication platforms, insurers should look for technologies that deliver beyond output to the ability to connect via API’s to their CRM, ERP, and core systems. Crucial to stay ahead of the digital transformation curve is to look for technologies that incorporate role-based configuration to enable their business users and subject matter experts to be part of a functional, streamlined workflow. These emerging platforms differentiate themselves from traditional customer communications management platforms by providing master templates, centralized content repositories and adapt to data in real time. These robust and centralized toolsets automate manual processes while simultaneously allowing organizations to stay abreast of regulatory compliance. Central to the power of these technologies are highly configurable business user interfaces, that allow your non-technical users to make changes to your communications easier, faster, and with less errors, all while minimizing the burden on IT.

Insurers who are already implementing these technologies are seeing higher revenue growth and lower internal costs through an improved employee and customer experience. They improve cross departmental communication and are better able to leverage portals for their customers preferred channels.

Creating the Digital Experience of the Future

Although the most crucial part of an insurers digital transformation is modernizing their core systems, making sure that their communication processes are updated as well, is critical to drive new business growth, as customers are increasingly informed and actively compare offerings across multiple insurers. Ensuring that your whole organization is involved in creating an integrated customer experience leveraging the latest digital technology, allows insurers to deliver new personalized products tailored to the needs of their customers faster, easier and at a lower cost.